The Science
What is NAD+? The molecule your cells run on.
NAD+ is a coenzyme present in every living cell. This page sets out what it does, what happens to it as you age, and why we deliver it the way we do. Where the evidence is thin, it says so.
The Decline
In your cells, it falls with age.
You are born with plenty of NAD+. In cells and tissues, research in rodents and in people points to a gradual fall with age, and that fall is the usual reason people take NAD+ or one of its precursors. The whole-body picture is less settled: a large study that measured NAD+ in human blood found it held steady with age. So the decline this page means is the one inside cells, where NAD+ is spent.
NAD+ level by age
- Age 0
- 100% of newborn NAD+ level
- Age 40
- 32% of newborn NAD+ level
- Age 60
- 13% of newborn NAD+ level
- Age 74
- 12% of newborn NAD+ level
One dot per percent. NAD+ measured in human skin, as a share of newborn levels. Massudi et al., PLoS One, 2012.
The Role
Three jobs, in every cell.
NAD+ is a coenzyme, which means many of the cell's enzymes cannot do their own work without it. The three jobs below are really the work of those enzymes, with NAD+ as the part they need to carry each one out. People sometimes shelve it with vitamins or stimulants, and it is neither, though the body does build it partly from vitamin B3.
Energy
NAD+ carries electrons through the reactions that turn food into ATP, the molecule a cell actually spends. That chain does not run without it.
Repair
The enzymes involved in repairing damaged DNA consume NAD+ as a substrate. The more repair work a cell is doing, the more of it that work costs.
Signalling
Sirtuins, a family of enzymes tied to how cells respond to stress, depend on NAD+ to function at all. They compete for the same pool.
The Route
Why a kit, and not a capsule.
NAD+ is a large, fragile molecule. Much of an oral dose is taken apart in the gut and on the liver's first pass, long before it reaches the blood, which is why almost every NAD+ product on a shelf holds a precursor, something the body can build NAD+ from, in place of the coenzyme itself. An injection takes a different path. It goes around the gut and that first-pass breakdown and puts NAD+ into the bloodstream, which is the reason the product takes the form it does. What happens next, once NAD+ has to get into the cells, is less well mapped.
Precursors work upstream
They feed the pathway that builds NAD+ and depend on the cell to do the building. That is a reasonable approach, and it is not the same thing as NAD+.
The route is the product
Everything in the box exists to get one fragile molecule into the bloodstream intact: the cold packing, the sealed vial, the device.
The Testing
A number you can check.
Purity is the only quality claim on this site that carries a figure, so it is the one that has to be verifiable. Every batch is measured by an independent laboratory by HPLC, and the certificate that ships in the box is that batch's own result rather than the specification it was expected to meet.
- Purity
- ≥99% (HPLC)
- CAS number
- 53-84-9
- Molecular formula
- C₂₁H₂₇N₇O₁₄P₂
- Molecular weight
- 663.4 g/mol
- Origin
- Made in the UK
The Limits
What we do not claim.
NAD+ is an area of active research and a good deal of it is early. What follows is the part of the page we would rather you did not skip: the things we cannot claim, and the places where the evidence is thinner than the noise around this molecule suggests.
- We do not claim this treats, cures, reverses or prevents anything, and nothing here is medical advice.
- Much of the published work on NAD+ comes from cell and animal studies. Human trials exist, and they are fewer and smaller than the enthusiasm around them suggests.
- We publish no before-and-after photographs and no customer results, because we have none we could stand behind.
- Where we print a figure it is measured. If we cannot point at the measurement, the figure does not go on the page.
Speak to your doctor before starting if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking prescribed medication, or under medical supervision.
The Kit
One molecule, delivered properly.
A month of NAD+ at 1000mg, the device that delivers it, and the certificate for that batch.